Papadelis to lead new pediatric brain research center

UTA center will shape pediatric brain health and treatment now and for generations

2026-02-06

(Press-News.org) Christos Papadelis, a pioneering researcher at The University of Texas at Arlington and leader in the Jane and John Justin Institute for Mind Health at Cook Children’s Health Care System, will serve as the founding director of the UTA Pediatric Brain Health and Neurosciences Center.

The center links clinical and academic communities and bridges the gap between scientific discovery and patient care. Since 2015, UTA has earned the prestigious R1 designation from the Carnegie Classifications of Institutions of Higher Education, signifying the highest level of research activity.

“The ability to collaborate between clinicians and research teams can solve problems and make an immediate impact,” said Jon Weidanz, UTA’s senior associate vice president for research and founding director of the Institute of Biomanufacturing and Precision Medicine for North Texas.

Dr. Papadelis has a track record of success, publishing more than 100 peer-reviewed research investigation articles and working at prestigious organizations across the world. He’s spent time at the RIKEN Brain Science Institute in Japan and the Center for Mind/Brain Sciences at the University of Trento in Italy, and he had his first faculty appointment teaching neurology at Harvard Medical School. He joined Cook Children’s in 2019 in its Neuroscience Research Center at the Jane and John Justin Institute for Mind Health. Shortly after joining Cook Children’s, he became a member of UTA’s faculty as a professor of bioengineering.

At Cook Children’s, Papadelis oversees a range of studies in neuroscience, clinical neurophysiology and biomedical engineering. Papadelis’ main goal is to develop a novel epilepsy biomarker that will help children with drug-resistant epilepsy become seizure-free after resective neurosurgery.

Papadelis’ team has already uncovered several new signs for identifying the epileptogenic zone with high precision and developed new AI tools for predicting surgical outcomes in children with drug-resistant epilepsy. These discoveries and prediction tools help guide physicians in their treatment, improve the accuracy of surgical interventions, and give new hope to patients with uncontrolled seizures.

“What I like to see with my research is how to help children,” Papadelis said. “That's why I like what's called translational research. It's not science for the sake of science. It's science for the sake of applying the knowledge to help somebody.”

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Papadelis to lead new pediatric brain research center

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